Kindred Spirits
by charlotteredmond99
Summary: This was supposed to be an easy, simple job. Was it so hard to find just one?


The Houses Competition

House: Gryffindor

Year: Year 5 (Stand In)

Category: Round 8, Category 2: Crossovers

Prompt: Marvel Cinematic Universe

Words: 1898 words

x

x

Harry watched on from under his invisibility cloak.

He had been observing this group for the past three days. Although the ministry had it on an 'urgent' list, Harry thought they had really overestimated this supposed threat. So far, the only threat he had really seen was the group getting into a fight and him having to maneuver himself out the way before they realised he was there.

But anyway, a job was a job for him and since he got paid on a case by case basis he might as well make the easy money; just observe for a few days, possibly obliviate a few people who seemed to know a bit too much, make up a nice and shiny report, hand it in and then 10,000 Galleons were his. Easy as that.

Except it had seemed it wasn't going to be as easy as that. Harry felt Death appear and threw up a shield just in time to save himself as an explosion occurred.

He turned around and glared at Death. Would have been nicer if he could have gotten a memo an hour ago about this rather that at the very last second. As usual Death didn't say anything to Harry nor to anyone else, although Harry always swore that he could see Death laughing at the situations Harry found himself stuck in.

This was supposed to be an easy, simple job. Was it so hard to find just one?

XxxxxxX

Deciding for the moment that the Statue of Secrecy could remain intact Harry stayed underneath his cloak and muttered a disillusionment charm just in case his cloak got caught on anything. He moved noiselessly along one of the long corridors, keeping to the walls to avoid getting run into by any frantic agents.

Before the explosion he had ignored the possibility that the prisoner they had captured could really be a credible threat. But after this, Harry wanted to speak with him directly and not just observe as some Muggle with no real intelligence of magical matters tried to do the interrogation.

XxxxxxX

The room was silent, no agents around, which Harry could already tell was wrong, not to mention the general feel of wrongness emanating from within. Did this prisoner really know of the magical arts or was he a fraud? It wouldn't be the first one Harry had found. Modern technology was now capable of so, so much but Harry was better, he had to be to prevent the threats of tomorrow occurring today.

Inside a clear glass tank was the prisoner. Left free to roam with no chain and nothing else to inhibit his movements, Harry could already clearly see the magical aura he gave off without having to move closer.

However, nobody could ever say he was a clever man, and so closer he did go. Except that was when he realised just why the room felt wrong to him. Upon moving forward, Harry could see the man's aura so much more clearly, and he could also see just how clearly vile green vines of magic were wrapped around, tainting it, like the _Imperio Curse_ but so much worse. With this, control was pushed down. You knew what you were doing, you knew it was wrong, except you couldn't fight to stop were a mere pawn in the greater scheme of things to be used and discarded. All your mental strength ruined with everlasting effects.

Harry silently sent a _Bombarda Maxima_ towards the glass whilst striding towards the soon to be hole. He had heard all about the death drop function upon any force being applied and all he needed to do was to get into the cage before it dropped. Jumping in he quickly shouted "_Stupefy_" at the man before he could do anything, grabbed ahold of him and apparated out just as the cage began to drop.

XxxxxxX

Appearing in one of his safe houses, Harry had a good chance to actually look at the man he had just effectively kidnapped. Although one could also say he had freed him, depending on who you were asking. Harry was just going to go with relocated for now.

Harry dumped down the body onto the sofa he had conveniently placed just by the apparition entrance point. After all, appearing a few times with a body that then needed to be dragged over to the nearest sofa or bed to be laid out got old quickly.

After making sure the man (Harry was sure that they had mentioned a name at some point but to be honest they droned on so much he had just stopped listening) wasn't going to fall off the sofa he set about making some tea. No matter what, Harry was British and proud, tea would always come first. After he had had some tea would he then set about fixing up the monstrosity of an aura.

XxxxxxX

Tea had and now feeling fully refreshed, Harry called Death.

As usual, Death appeared not a moment later.

"Is he fixable?" Harry had to ask. There was no point in trying to fix the unfixable. At some point he may have tried in vain no matter what it cost him. He knew better now. The world was a dark and lonely place that took everything from you; you don't give it anything more than the bare minimum because you need all of that and more just to survive. If this man wouldn't make it then he would be merciful. A quick Avada Kedavra was better than forcing the man to live out an eternity of suffering.

Death remained still, no answer visible, until he suddenly drifted forwards towards the man. Holding out a skeletal hand over the man's head, Death nodded once before disappearing once more.

Harry let out a small sigh of relief. It could be done. It didn't mean it would be easy though.

For the next hour, Harry meditated quietly, getting into the correct mindset. It would be delicate work to separate the many strands of twisting, winding strings connecting to the aura that made the man only a puppet to control.

Eventually, feeling like he was somewhat ready to take this task upon himself, he muttered the phrase Snape had drilled into his mind with so many years ago. "_Legilimens_."

XxxxxxX

Quite frankly, it was a mess inside the man's brain.

Harry was surrounded by clips of memories all jumbled together with no real order connected to any of them. Some were from years ago, whilst others were of places Harry recognised from the previous few days. It would all need to be sorted in time, this wasn't going to be a quick fix.

Moving his consciousness cautiously forward towards the centre of the mind, he finally found the twisted magical core of the man.

It was covered in choking green strands that were leaching his magic away from him and slowly poisoning his soul.

Harry needed to remove them without causing any damage to the core. That ruled out most of his aggressive spells he was hoping could be of use. He moved around the core, seeing if any possible weak point was available, checking to see if the strands tightened or released in any certain places.

He was still circling the core when he blinked. Could it really be that simple? Was the result really staring him right in the face? The stands or vines were strangling the core. If it acted in any way similar to Devil's Snare, then all he needed to do was to cast lumos and it would be gone. Sure the previous damage wouldn't be undone, but it would prevent any more from occurring and the control would be gone.

Harry uttered it quietly as he hoped with all his might that this would work. "_Lumos_."

XxxxxxX

Loki came to slowly. The last thing he remembered was being stuck in that flying death trap trying not to think of all the deaths he was inadvertently going to cause in the next few moments. So when he finally opened his eyes and saw that he was not where he had been before, he was more than slightly confused.

He automatically reached out to his magic to survey the area before flinching in preparation for the pain it had been causing ever since Thanos had taken control of him. But it didn't. There was no pain; he could feel the weakness from being out of use for so long, but no stabbing ache that had become common.

Tentatively, he looked around the room. He saw a man sprawled out in a chair opposite him. From the way he felt his own magic react he was certainly some type of magic user.

As soon as he had prodded the man once again with his magic to try and get a feel for him, the man's eyes shot open.

Loki immediately froze. Although no harm had come to him yet that didn't mean it would stay that way now that the other man was awake.

"Hey. I'm Harry. I know this must be confusing for you right now but don't worry. I'm magic, you're magic. I removed the binds on your magic and let me tell you that it's certainly going to take some time to repair all the damage, but it can't hurt you now."

Loki didn't know what to say or do. He could feel that the bindings were gone and that the man, Harry, spoke the truth. But what did he want for it? Nothing ever came without a price for him.

"What must I do to repay you?" Loki didn't want to know, he wanted to sleep and pretend as if the last three years were a horrible nightmare. But he had to deal with it, and that included repaying his debts.

XxxxxxX

Harry was aghast. What sort of person who had obviously went through hell (and then some) immediately thinks that any kind thing done demands repayment? Although thinking it over, Harry could clearly see that someone who had lived with the binds such as the man did had obviously been forced to live like that.

"Nothing. I want nothing from you, except maybe a name? Or not if you don't want to. If you want me to, I'll leave right now no questions asked. Whatever you want. Ball's in your court now."

Harry hoped that had put the man at ease, but judging by his face he doubted it. He had said what what he meant though. After going through everything he had when he had been just a teenager, he understood the importance of being able to make choices for yourself, even if they were bad ones.

"Loki."

Harry glanced over at the man as he whispered.

"You can call me Loki."

Harry nodded once, not speaking in case Loki had any more to say.

"If you could aid me, I would like to strengthen my magic back to my normal levels."

Harry smiled at Loki. "Sure. Whatever you want."

It may be a small start, but Harry could see that there was still resilience in him left and if, after a time when he had his strength again, he wanted to then destroy the being that had done this to him? Then Harry would quite happily stand by him and take on the world.

Kindred spirits should always stand together.


End file.
